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A PIONEER 
of FREEDOM 

i AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE ILLI- 

^ NOIS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

f/ AT SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS 

I; ' 'By 

;: ^ GEORGE A. LAWRENCE 



7m 



^ — 



A Pioneer of Freedom 



AM ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE FOURTEENTH 
ANNUAL MEETING 



ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



UPON THE LIFE AND SERVICES 
OF BENJAMIN LUNDY 



DELIVERED IN THE SENATE CHAMBER AT 
SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 



THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 15, 1913 



BY 

GEORGE A. LAWRENCE 



ss* 



^^fe 



A PIONEER OF FREEDOM 

An Address Delivered Before the Fourteenth 
Annual Meeting op thi Illinois Historical Society 
Upon the Life and Services of Benjamin Lundy 

By GEORGE A. LAWRENCE 



"By Nebo's lonely mountain. 
On this side Jordan's wave, 
In a vale in the land of Moab, 
There lies a lonely grave. 
But no man dug that sepulcher 
And no man saw it e'er. 
For the angels of God upturned the sod 
And laid the dead man there." 

These beautiful lines of Mrs. Alexander's 
were written of a prophet and pioneer of the 
far away years; of the man divinely appointed 
to become the leader of the chosen people; of 
a man who left behind him all that was alluring 
in life — wealth, almost kingly power, and a pos- 
sible life of ease — to undertake the forty years' 
wandering in the wilderness, to endure the com- 
plaints and seditions of those he served, and to 
meet his death without having entered the prom- 
ised land, to the very verge of which he brought 
his followers. 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

I am privileged to present to you to-night the 
story of a man which in many respects parallels 
the career of Moses ; of a man who is sepulchered 
to-day not upon a "lonely mountain," but upon 
a hill-top on the banks of Clear Creek, in Putnam 
County, Illinois. Appreciative nature has cov- 
ered that sepulcher deep with myrtle, and upon 
the simple stone which marks the resting place 
are graven these words: 

"BENJAMIN LUNDY, 

Died August 22, 1839, 

Age, 50 years, 7 months, 18 days." 

Buried in that lonely spot far away from the 
tumult, toil and struggle of life, there is nothing 
in name or environment to suggest the character, 
the achievements, or the deserved fame of the 
man who lies buried there. Yet he was to his 
generation a second Moses. Chosen to lead a 
people out of bondage, for more than twenty- 
five years he also wandered in the wilderness, 
leading what seemed to be a forlorn hope. He 
also died ere his hopes were realized, but he had 
vitalized agencies that would soon bring those 
for whom he had struggled into the promised 
land. In that lowly grave to-day rests one 
whose heroic life, loyal service, and sacri- 



Historical Address 

fice almost divine, ought to be emblazoned upon 
the pages of human history. He lived a life of 
quietude and peace, but he set in motion forces 
for human liberty and human fellowship that re- 
sulted in the freedom of a race. 

In obedience to your most kind invitation, I 
wish to bring to you, as far as my time will allow, 
something of this man. 

Shall we not first profitably inquire into his 
times, and the day and generation in which he 
lived and which he served? 

The period from 1800 to 1830 may well be 
called, in discussing the question of human slav- 
ery, a period of stagnation. Slavery, introduced 
into Virginia in 1619, had fastened itself upon 
the country. North and South alike. In the 
North, however, the slaves were used only for 
domestic purposes, and being the source of 
neither pleasure nor profit they soon ceased to 
be a factor in its domestic or political economy. 
In the South, on the contrary, the milder climate, 
contributing as it did to the lassitude of the 
white population, became a fitting environment 
for the negro. 

Yet even there for a century and a half the 
slave had no special economic significance, and 
above all, was not a source of any great profit. 
5 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

The Declaration of Independence, and the for- 
mal assertion by the thirteen colonies of the rights 
of man, affected in a great measure the status of 
the slave, for those sturdy ancestors of ours were 
logicians as well as patriots. In 1783 slavery 
was judicially abolished in JNIassachusetts, and 
the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the 
Northwest Territory was another long step for- 
ward in the direction of its general abolition. A 
great world movement, begun in 1794, ended 
slavery in the French West Indies and several 
South American Republics, terminating in a sim- 
ilar result in Mexico in 1829, and in the British 
West Indies in 1833 by Act of Parliament. Slav- 
ery had, prior to the Revolution in this country, 
been suffered without comment, rather than en- 
dorsed or especially contended for. In the state 
of New York the first active opposition to it was 
the organization of anti-slavery societies under 
the presidency of John Jay in 1785. Two years 
afterwards Benjamin Franklin led an abolition 
society in Philadelphia, From that time for a 
number of years these societies multiplied in both 
North and South. Abolition was in the air, Slav- 
ery in contempt and disgrace. These were the 
days of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, 
the creation of the Mason and Dixon line and the 



Historical Address 

abolishment, by other nations, of the slave trade. 
With its destruction our forefathers hoped that 
slavery itself would die, and were well content 
to rest upon their laurels. Our most eminent 
statesmen from all sections of the country, ir- 
respective of political affiliations, were as apt to 
be abolitionists in some form or other as to favor 
slavery. No one was more outspoken in behalf 
of equal rights than Thomas Jefferson, the lead- 
ing character of the slave territory in his day. 
In fact, many of the southern enactments con- 
cerning the slave and slavery were decidedly hu- 
manitarian in their tendencies, restraining man- 
umission in a measure by an insistence upon 
the future support of those who were to be 
freed. In a general way it may be said that 
the slave power at that time was that of a giant 
conscious of his own invulnerability. It did not 
fear discussion, and did not condemn those op- 
posed to it. The anti-slavery sentiments of lead- 
ing men, of Randolph, Jefferson, Mason, Nicho- 
las, made no impression whatever upon this auto- 
cratic power, ruling as it saw fit for its own inter- 
est. Complacent when it saw but little to contend 
for, with no pro-slavery or anti-slavery senti- 
ment, it offered no obstruction to anti-slavery 
societies in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennes- 

7 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

see, fifteen years later. These moral forces were 
scarce noted in the enormous development of the 
cotton interest that took place in the early part 
of the Nineteenth Century. In 1794 the inven- 
tion of the cotton gin by Whitney revolution- 
ized the status of the slave as affecting the in- 
dustry of the Southern States. Hitherto slavery 
and negroes had been but a poor investment to 
the planter, growing out of idle habits and hap- 
hazzard methods. Had there been no cotton 
culture, and no cotton gin to make the bus- 
iness active and profitable, it is probable that 
slavery would have expired in all the states as it 
did in half of them, under the inspiration of uni- 
versal liberty which came of the Declaration of 
Independence and the struggle of the Revolu- 
tion. But the cotton gin, with the aid of slave 
labor, made cotton cultivation possible on a 
greater scale; incited ambitions for wealth, ag- 
grandizement and political power, and became an 
essential from this standpoint to their future 
prosperity. It held out the promises of enor- 
mous gain. It received a representation based 
upon slave population and for that purpose de- 
manded an extension of the area of slavery. It 
was the act of the hitherto sleeping giant awak- 
ened to the seductive influences of enormous 



Historical Address 

wealth, and it had the more alluring temptations 
of supreme political power. The North also was 
more or less affected by its commercial relation 
with the South and especially is this true in the 
case of important commercial centers. There, 
everywhere, could be found a decided pro-slavery 
sentiment, ready the^i and afterwards to foster 
and encourage its promotion. 

It is interesting to note the effect which com- 
mercial relations or political ambitions had, or 
could have, upon the conscience or the conduct 
of mankind with reference to this question. One 
naturally looks upon Massachusetts as for rock- 
ribbed abolition, and upon Virginia as being for 
slavery, from the very nature of the situation. To 
illustrate how far from the truth this can be, let 
me quote from a speech of Edward Everett in 
Congress about 1834 or '35: 

"Sir," said he, addressing the speaker, "I am no 
soldier. My habits and education are very unmil- 
itary. But there is no cause in which I would 
sooner buckle a knapsack on my back and put a 
musket on my shoulder, than that of putting down 
a servile insurrection at the South. The slaves of 
this country are better clothed and fed than the 
peasantry of some of the most prosperous states of 
Europe. The great relation of servitude, in some 
form or other, with greater or less departure from 
the theoretic equality of man, is inseparable from 
our nature. Domestic slavery is not, in my judgment. 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

to be set down as an immoral or irreligious relation. 
It is a condition of life as well as any other, to be 
judged by morality, religion and International Law." 

And then arose John Randolph of Roanoke, 
a typical Virginian: 

"Sir, I envy neither the head nor the heart of that 
man from the North who rises here to defend slavery 
on principle." 

Abolitionism, meanwhile, was sitting quietly 
by with folded hands, all organized opposition at 
an end. Up to 1814 only three pamphlets of any 
importance were published anywhere affecting 
anti-slavery and these advocated progressive 
emancipation or discussed doctrinal or agricul- 
tural questions in connection with slavery. 

In this crisis of affairs, aggression on the one 
hand, and apatluj on the other, who should lead 
a new crusade against the violators of the Tem- 
ple of Liberty? Who should become another 
Moses to lead a people out of bondage into free- 
dom? 

He came, not out of a kingly court. Xot 
from among the learned, the eloquent, or those 
of commanding influence, but from the ranks of 
the humble and the lowly, and with nothing of 
either physical or educational equipment that 
would indicate the possibilities of his career. 



Historical Address 

Benjamin Liindy was born January 4, 1780, 
the only son of Joseph and Eliza (Shotwell) 
LiHidy, at Handwick, Sussex Count}', Xew Jer- 
sey. His parents and most of their connections 
were members of the society of Friends and came 
originally from England and Wales. His moth- 
er died when he was about five years old. During 
her life he had been to school and learned to read 
but little. After his father's second marriage he 
attended school a few weeks and began to try to 
write before he was eight years of age. At the 
age of sixteen he again went to school a short time 
to learn arithmetic. This was all the schooling 
he ever had. He writes of himself: 

"I had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and 
was withal very ambitious, in so much that when my 
father hired men to work on his farm, I labored with 
them much too hard for my physical frame, in order 
to convince them, though I was a mere boy, I could 
do the work of the largest and strongest of them. 
By this means I partially lost my hearing and other- 
wise injured myself." 

At the age of nineteen, on account of failing 
health, he went to A\''heeling, Virginia, where he 
remained four years and served an apprentice- 
ship at the saddler's trade and worked at it eigh- 
teen months as a journeyman. It was there he 
writes : 

11 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

"My faculties were developed, my character made 
known to myself and the principles that have since 
guided me in my public labor were formed and 
fixed." 

Of his associates he says: 

"They were wild, fashionable youths, clever 
enough, but fond of frivolous sports." 

For himself, he 

"Resolved to check any unreasonable propensities 
before it was too late. He kept in his plain dress, 
attended the regular meetings of his society (the 
Quakers) and spent most of his time in reading in- 
structive books." 

Consider for a moment the geographical po- 
sition of Wheeling, his residence in these forma- 
tive years. Located upon the Ohio River, it was 
the boundary line of the slave territory over 
which Lundy passed every week in attendance 
upon First Day service in a free state. The Ohio 
River was the highway of the slave traffic at that 
time, which was enormous and enormously prof- 
itable. Engaged in developing the new regions 
of the west and southwest, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri were being rapidly settled and Illinois was 
a future battle ground to be occupied and en- 
trenched, if possible. Virginia, Maryland and 
the southern states adjoining were the breeding 
ground for the western market. Here the slaves 

12 



Historical Address 

were collected together, "bunched up" as we 
would say in cattle phrase to-day. Chained to- 
gether under the guard of drivers, to prevent an 
escape into free states adjoining, they were driv- 
en to the Ohio River, placed upon boats at some 
convenient point and floated down to their desti- 
nation. Wheeling was the greatest thoroughfare 
in this traffic in human flesh and Benjamin 
Lundy saw it in all its enormity. Anticipating 
by a few years the sensation and resolution of 
Abraham Lincoln at New Orleans, he formed 
a resolution then and there that became the de- 
termined purpose of his life, and from the ac- 
complishment of which he never wavered. He 
says : 

"My heart was deeply touched at the gross abom- 
ination; I heard the wail of the captive, I felt his 
pang of distress, and the iron entered ray soul." 

The assistant editor of his closing days, 
Mr. Z. Eastman, was told in 1839 by ^Mr. 
Lundy that as far back as 1808 he was led to 
make a consecration of his life for the deliver- 
ance of the slave. That must have been in the 
first year of his apprenticeship and his impres- 
sion must have been immediate as well as pro- 
found. 

Mr. Lundy left Wheeling in 1812 and re- 

13 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

turned to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, where he met his 
future wife. Remaining there for two years en- 
gaged at his trade, he returned to his father's 
home in Xew Jersey for a stay of eight or ten 
months. Refusing his father's offer to engage in 
business there, he returned to St. Clairsville, 
Ohio, ten miles west of Wheeling, was married 
and started a business. That he was successful 
appears from his own statement: 

"I began with no other means but my own hands 
" and a disposition for industry and economy. In a little 
more than four years, however, I found myself in 
possession of more than $3,000 worth of property be- 
yond what was necessary to pay the moderate amount 
I owed. I had then a loving wife and two beautiful 
children that it M^as then a real happiness to possess 
and cherish. I was at peace with my neighbor and 
knew not that I had an enemy. I had bought a lot 
and built myself a comfortable house. All my wants 
and those of my family were fully supplied. My 
business was increasing and prosperity seemed to 
smile upon me." 

I have quoted this fully that we might all 
appreciate the extent and completeness of the 
sacrifice that was to be made. In that period of 
our national development upon the frontier very 
much of future wealth and influence was repre- 
sented in the fact of a permanent home, a united 
family, and increasing business. The accumula- 
tion of a capital of $3,000 within four years at 

14 



Historical Address 

that time, without assistance, was no mean ac- 
complishment and indicated great business ca- 
pacity. The man who could do this was capable 
of great things in any imdertaking. 

ISl'dy we take a glance at the man himself at 
that time? 

A biographer has said: 

"He was slender and slightly under middle size, 
with light complexion, blue eyes and wavy hair. He 
was cheerful, unassuming and studious." 

An engraving from a portrait by A. Dicken- 
son, published in 1847, reveals a man with a 
scholarly, dignified face, a mild eye, clad in con- 
ventional garb with high collar and choker; one 
whose appearance would never indicate his rug- 
ged nature or his ability for any heroic struggle 
which should demand the highest capacity for 
physical, mental and moral fortitude. His por- 
trait is also included as one of a dozen men cited 
in Greeley's American Conflict as eminent op- 
ponents of the slave power; compared with the 
portraits of Joshua Giddings, William Lloyd 
Garrison, Garret Smith, Charles Sumner, or 
Owen Lovejoy, Lundy seems mild, indeed, 
though not effeminate. A water color portrait, 
however, owned by Susan Maria (Lundy) Wire- 
man, his daughter, who is also buried at Clear 

IS 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

Creek Cemetery, has given me a better idea of 
the real man he was. "Blue eyes and wavy 
hair" might well describe the man of the engrav- 
ing I have spoken of. They do not identify the 
man of the water color portrait. An ej^e of blue 
that was bright with the gleam of steel and of 
fire, an eye that penetrated where it fastened its 
gaze; scant reddish hair and beard, and a com- 
plexion of purest Saxon type gave life and en- 
ergy and vivacity to the subject which cold black 
print can never portray; more than all these, 
there is a certain setting of the jaw which 
suggests that, which no other portrait contains. 
Here in this portrait is seen the man to whom so 
much of heroism, daring and sacrifice has been 
attributed. Here can be seen the indomitable will, 
unconquerable spirit and transcendent genius 
that was necessarj^ to the accomplishment of the 
work to which he had dedicated himself. The 
portrait reveals the physical and native resources 
he possessed. It cannot reveal the added mental 
and scholarly equipment which his "studious 
habits with book in hand" had furnished him. 

He was now twenty-five years of age, in the 
midst of the comfort and possibilities he has de- 
scribed. He was now a man with all the respon- 
sibilities of a man. What should be his future? 

16 



Historical Address 

Up to that time he had taken no active part in 
anti-slavery agitation, nor, so far as it can be 
learned, had it ever influenced the slightest act 
of his life. I have referred to his life at Wheel- 
ing, and in his later years he gave utterance to 
the reason which prompted his future conduct 
and controlled his entire career. I quote from 
his paper. The Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
tion, at that time printed in Washington, as 
being the best authority for the reasons that de- 
termined him in the change of his entire life. In 
this journal of Xovember, 1832, he said of 
Wheeling : 

"That M'as the place where liis youthful eye 
first caught a view of the 'cursed whip' and the 
'hellish manacle' — where he first saw the slaves in 
chains forced along like brutes to tlie southern mark- 
ets for human flesh and blood ! Then did his young 
heart bound within liis bosom and his heated blood 
boil in his veins on seeing droves of a dozen or twenty 
ragged men chained together and driven through the 
streets bareheaded and barefooted in sun and snow 
by the remorseless 'soul sellers' with horse whips 
and bludgeons in their hands ! It was the frequent 
repetition of such scenes as these in the town of 
Wheeling, Virginia, that made the impressions on 
his mind relative to the slave question which have 
induced him to devote himself to the cause of Uni- 
versal Emancipation. During the apprenticeship 
with a respectable mechanic of that place, he was 
made acquainted with the cruelties and the despot- 
ism of slavery as tolerated in this land ; and he made 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

a solemn vow to Almighty God that if favored with 
health and strength, he would break at least one link 
of the ponderous chain of oppression when he should 
become a man." 

He had now become a man. The time is now 
at hand for the fulfiUment of his vow, and he 
says in his autobiography: 

"I had lamented the sad condition of the slave 
ever since I became acquainted with his wrong and 
suffering, but the question, What can I do? was the 
continual response to the impulses of my heart. As 
I enjoyed no peace of mind, I concluded I must act, 
and shortly after my settlement at St. Clairsville, I 
called a few friends together and unbosomed myself 
to them. The result was the organization of an anti- 
slavery association called the 'Union Humanitarian 
Society.' " 

The first meeting was held at his home and 
consisted of six persons. In a few months it had 
grown to nearly five hundred persons, among 
whom were the most eminent divines, lawyers 
and citizens of that state. 

He also wrote a circular dated Jan. 4, 1816, 
being his twenty-seventh birthdaj^ which was the 
first definite announcement of a campaign that 
ended in the overthrow of slavery. This circular 
is historic. Its first appearance was in five or 
six copies in manuscript. At the urgent request 
of friends and of persons from a distance who 
met at the yearly meeting in the society of 

18 



Historical Address 

Friends at Mt. Pleasant, this paper was printed 
and circulated on the condition that it should 
appear with a fictitious signature. This signa- 
ture was Philo Justicia. As an introduction, 
while urging the inadequacy of stopping at the 
abolition of the African slave trade, when the 
seeds of the evil system had been sown in our 
soil and were springing up and producing in- 
crease, he proposed. 

First, that a society should be formed whenever 
a number of persons could be induced to join in 
them. 

Second, that a title should be adopted common 
to all the societies. 

Third, they should all have a uniform constitu- 
tion, "varying onlj'^ on account of necessity arising 
from location." 

Fourth, that a correspondence should be kept up 
between the societies, that they should co-operate 
in action, that in case of important business they 
should choose delegates to meet in general conven- 
tion. 

This plan is practically the same in efficient 
operation twenty years afterwards when it em- 
braced one thousand anti-slavery societies. At 
the conclusion of the address, the writer stated 
that he had the subject long in contemplation and 
that he had now taken it up fully determined for 
one, never to lay it down while he breathed, or 
until the end should be obtained. 

19 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

This circular, sliort and simple as it was, is 
mentioned by Greeley in his Amerivan Con- 
flict as "containing the germ of the entire anti- 
slavery movement." 

A local newspaper. The Philanthropist, 
had been established at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, and 
its columns were open to the discussion of slav- 
ery. Lundy became an interested contributor 
and soon was invited to take part in its editorial 
work. Soon his articles were upon the editorial 
page. While he was at work on his saddler's 
bench, ten miles away, an invitation to become a 
partner in the business and to remove to Mt. 
Pleasant was accepted, and he proceeded to close 
out his business for that purpose. In 1819, for 
the purposes of a better market for his goods, he 
took the balance of his stock upon a boat, his 
apprentices pljang their trade on board while he 
steered the boat for St. Louis. Unable to sell his 
stock at St. Louis by reason of financial depres- 
sion, he rented a shop and boarded himself and 
his boy apprentices. Missouri was at that time 
in the turmoil and excitement of a great political 
campaign and was knocking at the door for ad- 
mission to the Union. Every spare moment was 
devoted by Lundy, in person and through news- 
paper articles, in Missouri and Illinois, to expos- 

20 



Historical Address 

ing the evils of slavery. He says, "The contest 
wliich was long and severe, terminated in our 
losing the day." * * * * He sold his remaining 
stock at a ruinous sacrifice and returned home 
on foot, a journey of seven hundred miles and in 
the winter season, having been absent a year and 
ten months. 

During his absence, the newspaper had 
changed hands and was conducted by Elisha 
Bates, who did not come up to the anti-slavery 
standards of Lundy. He also learned that Elihii 
Embree had begun the publication of an anti- 
slavery paper, The Emancipator, at Jonesbor- 
ough, Tennessee. He removed to Mt. Pleasant 
and began the publication of the Genius of Uni- 
versal Emancipation, in January, 1821. The 
prospectus and first number were published by 
Elisha Bates. Afterwards the printing was done 
at Steubenville, Ohio, twenty miles away, Lundy 
going to and fro on foot, carrying his printed 
papers on his back. In a few months the sub- 
scription list was quite large, but after eight 
monthly issues, Lundy started for Tennessee to 
use the Embree press at Jonesborough, Embree 
having died. It was a journey of eight hundred 
miles, half on foot and half by water. There, for 
the first time, he undertook the printer's art and 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

did the mechanical, as well as editorial, work. 
After a few months, during which considerable 
opposition and threats of violence developed, he 
brought his family to Tennessee and resided 
there for three years. During this time he at- 
tended "The American Convention for the Abo- 
lition of Slavery" at Philadelphia, a distance of 
six hundred miles, going and returning on horse 
back. He was the first delegate from any part 
of the country as far south as Tennessee to any 
anti-slavery meeting. Upon this trip he made 
the acquaintance of some abolitionists east of the 
Alleghany mountains. The Genius of Univer- 
sal Emancipation had now obtained a consid- 
erable circulation. It was the only anti-slavery 
paper published in America. He concluded to 
transfer its publication to one of the Atlantic 
states to secure a wider influence and increased 
support. Arranging his business and shoulder- 
ing his knapsack, he set out for Baltimore in 
1824. On this trip he delivered his first public 
lecture and embraced every opportunity of ob- 
taining an audience; at house raisings, musters, 
and every sort of assemblies, he urged his cause, 
and in the State of North Carolina alone, while on 
this journey, twelve or fourteen anti-slavery so- 
cieties were organized. 

22 



Historical Address 

The first Baltimore number of the Genius 
was issued in October, 1824, being No. 1, of Vol. 
4>, and in about a year the publication was 
changed from a monthly to a weekly. Mean- 
while, his wife and family had been removed from 
Tennessee to Baltimore. In 1825 he made his 
first trip to the Island of Haiti to establish there 
a number of slaves who had been freed, and ar- 
range with the Island government for any eman- 
cipated slaves that might be sent there. De- 
tained longer than he had anticipated, he re- 
turned to Baltimore to find his wife dead and his 
five children scattered among friends. His obit- 
uary notice of his wife's death, published in the 
Genius, of June 3, 1826, is a most eloquent 
and touching tribute to her worth. Only a brief 
quotation can be made, but it is due to this wom- 
an that she be credited with her part in his great 
work. He said of her : 

"Whenever it fell to my lot to be called away 
from home, she uniformly and cheerfully gave her 
consent thereto; observing that she could not find a 
freedom in urging anything as a hindrance to the 
success of my labor in the cause of philanthropy." 

Five children were left motherless, among 
them twins a few weeks old, and this man, in 
face of that fact, said : 

23 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

"I collected my children together and placed 
them with friends in whom I could confide and re- 
newed my vow to devote my energy to the cause of 
the slave until the nation should be effectually aroused 
in its behalf. I relinquished any prospect of future 
enjoyment of an earthly home until that object 
should be accomplished." 

The publication of the paper was continued at 
Baltimore, William Swain being added as assist- 
ant editor with Elizabeth Chandler, a poet and 
author of some distinction ; both were converts of 
his lectures and publications, and it is noteworthy 
that his efforts produced not only converts, but 
missionaries in his work. 

In 1828 a trip was taken to the middle and 
eastern states for purposes of lectures and sub- 
scriptions. At Philadelphia a meeting was called 
to consider the use of free labor products, the 
first meeting of the kind ever held in America. 
This would indicate his intellectual grasp and his 
conception of the power of a modified boycott, 
an elaboration of which has become so prominent 
in the later stages of our national development. 
It was upon this trip that he met, at Boston, 
William Lloj^d Garrison, who had not yet turned 
his attention to the slavery question. They met 
at a boarding house with eight clergymen of var- 
ious denominations. The ministers all approved 

24 



Historical Address 

of the work and became subscribers to the Gen- 
ius. Garrison also expressed approval of liis 
doctrines. He was at that time the editor of the 
National Philanthropist, the first total absti- 
nence sheet in the world. Truly, here was a scene 
worthy the brush of the artist. This, in a way, 
accidental meeting, in an obscure boarding house 
in Boston, between Benjamin Lundy and Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison— the little deaf Quaker and 
the near-sighted Baptist who was to become the 
foremost type of militant warfare in the cause 
he at that moment espoused. "The Signing of the 
Compact" and "The Landing of the Mayflower" 
have been immortalized upon the canvas and 
form two of our great historic pictures. Yet 
neither of these events was more significant than 
the one we mention. Here awakened into vital- 
ity the conscience and co-operation of the man 
who was to assume such prominence in the final 
overthrow of slavery. Lundy 's word had been 
good seed and it had fallen upon good ground. 
The mild Quaker had lighted a flame that was 
never extinguished. The history of abolitionism 
shows us two fire-brands, John Brown and Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison. But Garrison was the first 
and more significant influence and very likely 
was responsible for the attitude of the other. 

25 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

In November, 1828, Lundy again visited 
Boston and invited Garrison to assist him in 
editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation, 
but the latter was at that time editing a paper in 
Vermont from which he could not free himself. 
Meanwhile the paper was successfully published 
and free produce stores were opened in Balti- 
more and Philadelphia where nothing the pro- 
duct of slave labor was handled. The editorial 
position was full of dangers. A single example 
will suffice to illustrate them : 

"There was in Baltimore a slave-trader by the 
name of Austin Woolfolk, notorious for the heart- 
less brutality with which he carried on his wretched 
business. He sent a gang of twenty-nine slaves on 
a boat to Georgia. When at sea the slaves rose for 
their liberty, murdered the captain and mate, reached 
New York City and escaped, — all except one, who 
was caught and hung. When led to the place of 
execution, the condemned negro, according to the 
custom of those days, was allowed to make some re- 
marks expressing his penitence. Woolfolk, who was 
present, interrupted the unfortunate man with oaths 
and abusive language and would not desist until 
compelled to do so by the indignant spectators. An 
account of this disgusting spectacle was published in 
the New York Christian Inquirer, and reprinted by 
Lundy in the "Genius." 

Soon after this, Woolfolk met Lundy near the 
post office in Baltimore, caught him by the throat, 
threw him upon the pavement, choked him until he 
was nearly unconscious, and then stamped on his 
head and face with the heel of his boot. Woolfolk was 

26 



Historical Address 

arrested and tried for assault and battery. The jury 
found Woolfolk guilty; and the judge, in whose dis- 
cretion the penalty was, sentenced liim to pay a fine 
of one dollar. The judge said from the bench that 
Lundy got nothing more than he deserved, and he 
took the copy of the "Genius" containing the objec- 
tionable article and sent it to the grand jury, charg- 
ing them to indict Lundy for libel, which they re- 
fused to do." 

In the spring of 1829 another trip was made 
to Haiti with a small colony of emancipated 
slaves and leases of land obtained for them on 
easy terms. Upon his return in September, 
1829, Lundy announced in the Genius the as- 
sociation of Garrison in its editorship. This 
move was not a fortunate one. Garrison es- 
poused the cause of Henry Clay against Jackson, 
while Lundy had no confidence in Clay upon the' 
slavery question. Subscriptions fell off when 
politics and sectarianism supplanted in any de- 
gree the question for which Lundy alone stood. 
Garrison, moreover, did not possess the gift of 
using strong language just outside the law of 
libel that Lundy had, and was soon behind grates 
and bars and obliged to pay a fine, money for 
which was obtained in New York by Lundy. 
But Lundy himself was in turn arrested as co- 
editor and imprisoned for several days. The pai'- 
ticulars of this incident are told in the life of Gar- 



27 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

rison, and of the time he was in jail, which was 

forty-nine days, he says: 

"The sun itself was not more regular day by day 
during that period in visiting my cell with its cheer- 
ing light than was my friend Lundy. His sym- 
pathy, kindness and attention were all that a brother 
could show." 

The partnership was a short one. This plan 
of the two joining to shake the sleepy nation to 
consciousness had to be abandoned. Garrison 
went to Boston with the inspiration of a Balti- 
more jail upon him, most terribly in earnest; an 
intellectual and moral lion aroused to work in 
his own way in the path laid out for him. Lundy 
was left to plod his accustomed way alone. At 
this point, for the first time, Lundy, in his paper, 
the Genius of Universal EinanciiJation, after 
regretting the loss of the help of his friend, states 
his own case, and it were well to perpetuate it 
here : 

"Nine years have nearly elapsed since this work 
first made its appearance. During that period I have 
witnessed many vicissitudes in the affairs of life ; have 
experienced something of the fickleness of fortune 
and a good share of what the world calls hardship 
and privation." 

Then he tells of the great difficulties he en- 
countered in getting out his monthly paper, his 
desires to publish it weekly, his hopes of the fu- 



Historical Address 

ture, his patience and unflinching determination 
shown in every line. He goes on : 

"I do not wish to speak boastingly of what I 
have done or essayed to do in advoeating the question 
of African emancipation, and I detest tlie idea of 
making a cringing appeal to tlie public for aid in my 
undertakings. I am M'illing to work, and can sup- 
port myself and family by my own labor. But, after 
ten years' struggle to promote the cause to the best 
of my Immble abilities and in every possible manner, 
it may not be amiss to inform those who take an in- 
terest in tliis publication that I have, within the 
period above mentioned, sacrificed several thousand 
dollars of my own hard earnings ; have traveled up- 
ward of 5,000 miles on foot, and more than 20,000 
in other ways; have visited nineteen of the states of 
this Union, and held more than 200 public meetings, 
with the view of making known our object, etc., and, 
in addition to this, have performed two voyages to 
the West Indies, by whicli means the liberation of 
a considerable number of slaves has been effected, 
and, I hope, the way paved for the enlargement of 
many more. What effect this work has had in turn- 
ing the attention of the public to the subject of the 
abolition of slavery, it would not become me to say. 
***** There is not another periodical work pub- 
lished by a citizen of the United States, whose con- 
ductor dare treat upon the subject of slavery as its 
nature requires and its importance demands, and, 
viewing the matter in this light, I shall persevere 
in my efforts, as usual, while the means of doing it 
are afforded, or until more efficient advocates of the 
cause shall make themselves known." 

In resuming control of the paper Lundy an- 
nounced that the Geinus would hereafter treat 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

exclusively upon the subject of emancipation. 
The paper had now fallen upon evil days. Sub- 
scriptions failed and it was changed from a 
weekly to a monthly sheet. It soon became nec- 
essary for Lundy himself to leave Baltimore and 
the Genius was moved to Washington and that 
city became the nominal place of its publication. 
It also became necessary for Lundy to travel to 
secure subscriptions, leaving the paper in the 
hands of a temporary editor. A few numbers 
would be published and then publication cease 
for lack of funds. Lundy, hearing of this, would 
prepare manuscript on the road and print the 
next number where he happened to be. He could 
secure a printing press at almost any point. The 
type he found it more convenient to carry with 
him, possibly upon his back. 

The founding of Garrison's Liberator in 
Massachusetts, and the breaking out of the 
^"Nat Turner Rebellion" in Virginia, hastened 
the failure of the Genius. The one, although 
working along the same lines, was necessarily 
to some extent a rival, and the Turner outbreak 
was fatal to all abolition societies of the south 
which furnished many subscribers. The story 
of the Genius of Universal Einancipatioii is 
now shortly told. Removed to Washington in 

30 



Historical Address 

1830, it was printed there until 1834, sometimes 
consecutively for months, when it made its last 
removal to Philadelphia, expiring there in 1838 
amid the flames of Pennsylvania Hall, which was 
burned by a mob in June of that year. 

Just a word as to its appearance. I quote 
from the words of Mr. Z. Eastman, who was 
with Lundy at Lowell, Illinois, at the time of his 
death, in the capacity of printer and assistant 
editor : 

"I well remember tJie editorial, 'Vignette.' It 
seemed to have been quite a pet of Mr. Lundy's. I 
think it was of his own desia:ning. It was not; quite 
clear to me what truth was to be inferred from it. 
Mr. Lundy once explained it minutely. It repre- 
sented a scene in a garden. There was in the back 
ground a sort of miniature square tower with a seat 
at the bottom. There was nothing in this country 
like it. Over it were trailing ^ines. Nearby, drag- 
ging a chain and holding a spade in hand, was a 
white man with depressed appearance. By his side 
stands a man, possibly putting some question to the 
slave held by the cliain. He looks like a philosopher 
or Doctor of Divinity, it is impossible to tell wliieh. 
He is evidently inquiring of this white slave 'Why 
is this.?' It was not a strange question if our own 
color were in that condition. Mr. Lundy would have 
had it asked, even of the black man also doomed to 
drag the ball and chain. Mr. Lundy's paper, be- 
sides that piercing motto 'Justicia fiat,' ruat coelum," 
also carried on its front this motto, 'We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal and are endowed by their Creator with cer- 

31 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

tain inalienable rights, in which are life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness.' " 

The historical vahie of Liindy's paper, begin- 
ning in 1821 and practically ending in 1830-34, 
can hardly be estimated. It is the repository of 
all plans for the abolition of slavery, of all laws, 
opinions, arguments, essaj^s, speeches, poems, 
views, statistics, constitutions of societies, manu- 
missions, congressional proceedings, book notices, 
pamphlets, colonization efforts, political move- 
ments, in short, it included everything that could 
throw light upon or affected the question of slav- 
ery here or elsewhere. It had taken part in the 
historic campaign of 1824 in Illinois, where an 
attempt was made to fasten slavery upon this 
state, and was a factor in what was, everything 
considered, the hardest fought political cam- 
paign ever waged in Illinois. Speaking of this 
campaign through newspaper and pamphlets 
widely disseminated, I have before me a pamph- 
let called ''Impartial Appeal to the Reason, Jus- 
tice and Patriotism of the People of Illinois and 
the Injurious Effects of Slave Labor/' This lit- 
tle brochure, published anonymously in Philadel- 
phia and used in the Illinois campaign, bears 
every token of being the work of Benjamin 
Lundy. It applies to the economic side of the 

32 



Historical Address 

question and repeats many arguments, purely 
his, found elsewhere. It is noteworthy as bear- 
ing upon our subject that it was reprinted in 
London, and used in connection with the struggle 
for the abolishment of slavery in the West In- 
dies, and I found the little book in London. So 
we may well claim that this humble Quaker con- 
tributed also to that work in no small degree. 

Time forbids to speak of the literary charac- 
ter of the Genius, its trenchant English, modes 
of emphasis and telling invective. With but the 
scanty preparation spoken of at the outset, Lun- 
dy became a great master of English in both 
style and expression, nor was he lacking in sen- 
timent and poetry. Let me quote a single verse, 
being one of a number sent his sister after in- 
forming her of the birth of his second daughter 
and their decision to call her Elizabeth: 

"Here let me pause, the Muse in accent clear 
Repeats the name that memory holds most dear, 
j\Iy mother, it was thine— ble'st spirit see 
Thy son, thy only son, remembers thee." 

Leaving for a time his journalistic work, 
permit me to call j'our attention to another phase 
of his many sided plans for abolition. I have 
suggested the two trips to Haiti, each time with 
a number of slaves that he located there. Lundy 

33 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

was unique as an abolitionist in this. He was 
willing to do for the time being the best that 
could be done. Garrison had the one idea of 
immediate emancipation, so had Goodell. Lundy 
possessed that idea with equal fervidness, but 
pending its success wished to have S07netUng 
done and that Avithout delay. With this thought 
in mind he sought to colonize emancipated slaves 
and free blacks upon territory contiguous to the 
United States, and upon lands which were not 
only to provide for them a home, and comply 
with some state laws as to voluntary emancipa- 
tion, but would furnish a concrete illustration 
of the safety and profitableness of the "Eman- 
cipation on the Soil" theory. With this in mind 
he made two journeys to Texas, then a part of 
Mexico, the first in 1830-31, beginning in the 
winter. A large portion of a biography pub- 
lished by his children in 1847 is taken up with 
the account of these trips. He says of them, 
"My labors were most arduous." The story is 
one of poverty, privation and danger; at times 
in disguise; cholera raging everywhere; working 
at his trade to get the means for a scanty liveli- 
hood ; when this did not offer, in making suspen- 
ders and shot pouches for those who would buy. 
The purpose of this trip was to establish a set- 

34 



Historical Address 



tiement of colored people in Texas with the view 
of the cultivation of sugar, cotton and rice by 
free labor. The first trip lasted eighteen months 
and involved much diplomacy with the Mexican 
Government to obtain the land, but owing to dis- 
turbing conditions was without avail and he re- 
turned home in 1833. In May, 1834, he again 
started on a similar errand, this time not dis- 
guismg his name, and several times nearly lost 
his life. In October of that year sorry "times 
certainly were upon him. His notes in his jour- 
nal of October 7th show that he had spent his 
last cent for provisions and "was reading the 
'Letters of Junius' to beguile his thoughts." On 
the 15th of October he writes: "I must move in 
some direction shortly even if I must as a last 
resort, fast, beg or starve." His narrative as a 
whole shows close habits of observation, and un- 
bounded resource and diplomacy in approaching 
the authorities seeking the grant of land. In this 
quest he was successful and obtained from the 
Government of Taumaulipas a grant of 138,000 
acres of land, conditioned upon introducing two 
hundred and fifty settlers with their families. 
This grant, however, came to naught, by reason 
of the revolution in Texas which followed, and 
the years of privation and absence went for noth- 



35 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

ing. It did accomplish, however, in another way 
a great and telling result. 

Better than any other American, Lundy had 
become acquainted with the Texan country. He 
knew its extent and the number and kind of its 
inhabitants and it was he who furnished to John 
Quincy Adams the facts upon which the sturdy 
fight was made in the United States Congress 
against the admission of Texas, and the subse- 
quent acts that led to the war with Mexico. It 
is not a part of our theme to discuss what part in 
this war with Mexico the question of slavery 
played, but this may be said, that no one person 
did more to furnish the opponents of slavery 
with weapons against the admission of Texas or 
the war with Mexico, than he. 

A pamphlet issued in 1836, of sixty- four 
double columns printed in small type, reveals 
him in the fullness of his intellectual activity 
and development. It was entitled, "War in 
Texas, a Review of Facts and Circumstances, 
Showijig that this Coritest is a Crusade against 
3£eccico, Set on Foot and Supported by Slave 
Holders, Land Speculators, etc., in Order to 
Re-establish, Re-extend and Perpetuate the Sys- 
tem of Slavery and Slave Trade." It was signed 
by "A Citizen of the United States." This 



Historical Address 

pamphlet is a masterly review of the situation 
from the standpoint of those opposed to the ac- 
quisition of Texas to become a part of the United 
States. It is a scathing arraignment of all en- 
gaged either in the conquest of Texas or its ad- 
mission to the Union ; brims with quotations from 
southern journals, and southern speeches to 
make clear his claim of conspiracy, all presented 
in a forceful and convincing way ; it furnished to 
John Quincy Adams the material upon which he 
based his opposition in Congress to the admis- 
sion of Texas as a state, and did no other writ- 
ing of his exist, this pamphlet would distinguish 
Mr. Lundy not only as a consecrated and deter- 
mined missionary, but as a master of polemic 
literature, inferior to none of his day. The strug- 
gle was not successful ; the enemy was too strong 
and too well intrenched, but the admission of 
Texas was delayed for years thereby, and oppor- 
tunity given to strengthen the abolition forces 
against the greater conflict now inevitable and 
almost in sight. May I place upon your records 
the concluding paragraphs of this great pamph- 
let which I do not find to have been quoted else- 
where : 

"Our countrymen in fighting for the Union of 
Texas with the United States will be fighting for that 

37 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

which at no distant day will inevitably dissolve the 
Union. The slave states having the eligible addition 
to their land of bondage, will ere long cut asunder the 
Federal tie and confederate a new and slave holding 
Republic in opposition to the whole free Republic 
of the north. Thus early will be fulfilled the pre- 
diction of the old politicians of Europe that our 
Union could not remain one century entire; and then 
also will the maxim be exemplified in history that 
liberty and slavery cannot long inhabit the same 
soil. 

Citizens of the free states: Are you prepared to 
sanction the acts of such freebooters and usurpers? 
Nay more: Are you willing to be made the instru- 
ments of these wanton aggressors, in effecting their 
unholy purposes, and thus not only excite the sym- 
pathizing maledictions of other human powers, but 
also invoke the awful judgments of Heaven against 
you? Some of our wisest statesmen have spoken 
out, in condemnation of their deeds ; and the patri- 
otic conductors of the press are likewise beginning 
to awaken the public attention to them. 

You see that they are now fully resolved to make 
a speedy application to Congress, for the incorpora- 
tion of the government which they have thus as- 
sumed into the confederation of the United States. 
This will be attempted the very moment that an 
opportunity is presented. People of the north! Will 
you permit it? Will you sanction the abominable 
outrage; involve yourselves in the deep criminality, 
and perhaps the horrors of war, for the establish- 
ment of slavery in a land of freedom; and thus put 
your necks and the necks of your posterity under the 
feet of the domineering tyrants of the South, for 
centuries to come? The great moral and political 
campaign is now fairly opened. Your government 
has fully espoused the cause of these land-pirates 

38 



Historical Address 

and free-booters. Can you still remain silent, and 
thus lend your sanction to the unparalleled and 
Heaven-daring usurpation? With deep anxiety, I 
await your response ; and trust it will come in the 
loudest tones of a thundering Negative, resoundinsj 
o'er your granite mountains, and echoing through 
every valley north of 'Mason and Dixon's Line.' 

You have been warned, again and again, of the 
deep machinations, and the wicked aggressive policy 
of this despotic " Slave-holding Party." I have un- 
folded its marauding designs, and pointed out its 
varied plans and movements. You would not listen 
to these earnest entreaties and admonitions. You 
have slumbered in the arms of political harlots, until 
they have nearly shorn you of your locks, and bound 
you with the bloody cords prepared by the Philistine 
horde of tyrannical desperadoes. Arise! Arise 
quickly! and burst those bands, or your doom, with 
that of your posterity, is sealed perhaps forever." 

Let me call especial attention to the prophecy 
of a "dissolution of the Union" and the confed- 
eration of a new and slave holding llepu})lic. I 
know of no earlier prophecy and it is noteworthy 
that when formed, it was called the confederacy. 

I have gathered the story of this man largely 
from the diary he kept. He seeks there to pre- 
pare for himself no page in history. It is the sim- 
ple story of resolve, effort and accomplishment. 
But he has a permanent place in history and may 
I be allowed to record a few brief extracts from 
various tributes to him? 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

"Any one who will examine John Quincy Adams' 
speech on Texas, in 1838, will see that he was only 
seconding the full and able exposure of the Texas 
plot, prepared by Benjamin Lundy, to one of whose 
pamphlets Dr. Channing in his 'Letter to Henry 
Clay' has confessed his obligation. Every one ac- 
quainted with those years will allow that the North 
owes its earliest knowledge and first awakening on 
that subject to Mr. Lundy who made long journeys 
and devoted years to the investigation. His ( Lun- 
dy 's) labors have this attestation that they quick- 
ened the zeal and strengthened the hands of such 
men as Adams and Channing. I have been told that 
Mr. Lundy prepared a brief for Mr. Adams and fur- 
nished him the materials for his 'Speech on Texas.' " 
—Speech of Wendell Phillips, Boston, Jan. 27, 1853. 

"The immediate precursor and in a certain sense 
the founder of abolitionism was Benjamin Lundy, a 
Quaker, born in New Jersey ***** In 1821 he 
began to publish the 'Genius of Universal Emanci- 
pation,' which is to be considered the first abolition 
organ ***** The Nineteenth Century can scarcely 
point to another instance in which the command- 
ment of Christ to 'leave all things and follow Him' 
was so literally construed *****" 
— Von Hoist's History of the United States, Vol. 2, 
Pages 81-82. 

"Nor is that pioneer of freedom, Benjamin Lundy, 
to be forgotten. It was his lot to struggle for years 
almost alone, a solitary voice crying in the wilder- 
ness ; poor, unaided, yet never despairing, traversing 
the Island of Haiti, wasting with disease in New Or- 
leans, hunted by Texan banditti, wandering on foot 
among the mountains of East Tennessee and along 
the Ozark Hills, beaten down and trampled on by 
Baltimore slave dealers; yet amidst all, faithful to 



Historical Address 

his one great purpose, the emancipation of the slaves 
and the protection of the free people of color. To 
him we owe under Providence the enlistment of Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison in the service which he has so 
nobly performed." 

— Letter of John G. Whittier, dated Amesbury, Mass- 
achusetts, March, 1S7^. 

"I trust that the memory and labors of Benja- 
min Lundy will be especially remembered and hon- 
ored at this reunion gathering. To him I owe my 
connection with the cause of emancipation, as he 
was the first to call my attention to it, and by his 
pressing invitation to me to join him at printing and 
editing the 'Genius of Universal Emancipation* at 
Baltimore, he shaped my destiny for the remainder 
of my life." 

— Letter of William Lloyd Garrison to Eastman, 
March, 1874. 

More than five pages of Greeley's Ameri- 
can Conflict are devoted to the life and service 
of Mr. Lundy and he concludes with these fit- 
ting words: 

"Thus closed the record of one of the most he- 
roic, devoted, unselfish lives that has ever been lived 
on this continent." 
— The American Conflict, pages 111-115. 

Mr. Garrison writes of Mr. Lundy in the 
Journal of the Times, Burlington, Vermont, 
Dec. 12, 1828: 

"Instead of being able to withstand the tide of 
public opinion, it would seem at first doubtful wheth- 
er he could sustain a temporary conflict with the 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

winds of Heaven. And yet, he has explored nine- 
teen states out of the twenty-four, from the Green 
Mountains of Vermont to the banks of the Mississ- 
ippi, multiplying anti-slavery societies in every quar- 
ter, putting every petition in motion relative to the 
extinction of slavery in the District of Columbia, 
everywhere awakening the slumbering sympathies 
of the people and beginning a work, the completion 
of which will be the salvation of his country. His 
heart is of gigantic size. Every inch of him is alive 
with power. He combines the meekness of Howard 
and the boldness of Luther. No reformer was ever 
more devoted, zealous, persevering or sanguine. He 
has fought single-handed against a host without miss- 
ing a blow, or faltering a moment, but his forces are 
rapidly gathering and he will yet save our land. It 
should be mentioned, too, that he has sacrificed sev- 
eral thousand dollars in this holy cause, accumu- 
lated by unceasing industry. Yet he makes no pub- 
lic appeal, but goes forward in the quietude and 
resolution of his spirit, husbanding his little resources 
from town to town and from state to state. He 
said to me some months ago, 'I would not exchange 
my circumstances with any person on earth if I there- 
by must relinquish the cause in which I am enlisted.' 
Within a few months he has traveled 2,400 miles, 
of which upwards of 1,600 have been on foot, dur- 
ing which time he has held nearly 500 public meet- 
ings. Rivers and mountains vanish in his path. 
Midnight finds him on his solitary way over an un- 
frequented road. The sun, is anticipated in his 
rising. Never was a moral sublimity better illus- 
trated." 

But I must hasten to the conclusion of this 
eventful life. He had, following the assassina- 
tion of Love joy, determined to move to Illinois 

42 



Historical Address 

and print an abolition paper here if it led to a 
bloody grave. His little property consisting of 
books, papers and Quaker clothing, and a com- 
plete file of his Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
tion, were, preparatory to his departure, stored 
in "Pennsylvania Hall," a building erected for 
the cause of freedom at Philadelphia. On May 
17, 1838, it was destroyed by the torch of a mob 
and all of his property, with the brain work of 
twenty years, went up in flames. 

In July he started for Illinois and planned 
to re-establish the Genius here. His relatives 
lived at Magnolia, in Putnam County, and he 
selected Hennepin, the county seat, as his place 
of publication. The paper was dated at Henne- 
pin, but printed at Lowell, where some friends 
had purchased an old press and worn out type. 
Lowell Avas then a city of the futiu-e, with a large 
stone mill in process of erection, with city lots 
to sell and some to give away. Now scarce a 
vestige remains of the place. The paper was 
mailed at Vermillionville, across the Vermillion 
River, and not far away. A building 12 feet 
square was the printing office and a two-room 
house just behind was the dwelling. The twins, 
now twelve years old, were with him and his 
daughter, Esther, his little housekeeper. In the 

43 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

spring of 1839 three or four issues were printed. 
John Love joy, a brother of the martyr, came to 
his assistance as a helper, but he was not a printer. 
In the spring of 1839 Mr. Z. Eastman, a printer, 
joined him and may I use his words in describing 
the end: 

"We all worked in that little office for a few weeks. 
Lundy seemed very happy. He had some confiden- 
tial talk with me, when I told him it would become 
necessary for me soon to return to the East. He 
spoke of dividing with me his town-lots in Lowell, 
and of giving me a share of the broad prairie on 
which he had squatted; but the proposition did not 
seem flattering. He was taken ill a day or two after; 
he wrote a sentence as an apology for lack of edito- 
rial, in which he said, 'We shall soon be better.' He 
went to his bed at the tavern the next day, and the 
day following, about 1 1 o'clock at night, being told 
by the physician that he was near his end, stated 
that he felt perfectly easy, and in a few moments fell 
into a sweet sleep, that of a child pillowed upon its 
mother's bosom; but it was his last sleep. I saw that 
peaceful death. I wrote the obituary notice that ap- 
peared in the same paper with his last editorial 
words, in which he said he should soon be better. His 
friends, without display, in the simple, plain style of 
their religious faith, carried him away, for burial. I 
suppose no colored man in this world knows where 
they laid him." 

The last statement is not true certainly at 
this day. Last summer my wife and I drove to 
the little cemetery in a car driven by a negro 
chauffeur. We stood at the grave of Lundy and 



Historical Address 

it occurred to us that it would be a matter of in- 
terest to the colored man to see the grave of the 
man who struck the first blow for the freedom of 
his race. We called him to the spot and told him 
in a few words of the man who lay buried there. 
I have spoken of the wealth of myrtle upon the 
grave, and I saw the young negro quietly place 
some sprigs of it in his purse. I asked him what 
he wanted to do with them. He replied that he 
wanted to send them to his sister at Tuskegee. 
Then I thought, Oh that the man who lay so 
quietly there could see this act, and could know 
that from his grave, perhaps from his very bones, 
had sprung the tokens that carried a brother's 
message to the negro in his better estate, with the 
opportunities at hand for which he had lived 
and suffered and died. Surely if that message 
w^rought its perfect work, it would tell to that 
people, to whom his life had opened such oppor- 
tunity, of the heroic self-sacrifice that had made 
freedom and opportunity possible to them. 

He, like 3Ioses, did not live to enter the 
promised land, but the people for whom he la- 
bored have entered into it. 

^lay I not fittingly close this address by quot- 
ing the last verse of JNIrs. Alexander's poem with 
which I began: 

45 



A Pioneer of Freedom 

"O lonely tomb in Moab's land! 
O dark Beth-peor's hill ! 
Speak to these curious hearts of ours, 
And teach them to be still. 
God hath His mysteries of grace, — 
Ways that we cannot tell; 
He hides them deep, like the secret sleep 
Of him He loved so well." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ad\ms, Alice Dana 

The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America [1808-1831]. [Rad- 

cliffe College Monographs.) Ginn and Company, Boston, 1808. 
Armstrong, William Clinton 

The Lundy Family and their Descendants. J. Heidingsfeld, New- 
Brunswick, N. J., 1903. 
BiRNEY, William 

James G. Birney and his Times [pp. 76-86]. D. Appleton and Co., 

New York, 1890. 
Lundy, Benjamin 

The War in Texas. (3nd edition pamphlet.) Merrihew and Ginn, 

Philadelphia, 1837. 

The Life, Travel and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy (compiled under 

the direction of his children). W. D. Parrish, Philadelphia, 1847. 
Sanborn, Frank B. 

The Great Agitation. The Cosmopolitan Magazine, vol. vii, pp. 52-55, 

1889. 

The Chicago Daily Tribune, [Thursday, June 11, 1874]. Article on 

the Abolitionists, at the Anti-Slavery Reunion. 

Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. 5th Annual Report, p. 66. Isaac 

Knapp, 85 Cornhill, Boston, 1837. 



46 



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